Volunteering

Every year we collaborate with approximately three hundred volunteers who give home tutoring to children in need of help. They are mainly children of parents who are poorly educated themselves (usually in only the primary education cycle). As a result they are not able to support their offspring as necessary. Volunteers generally help with individual or group tutoring.

In the individual tutoring programme, the volunteer works inside the child’s household, giving a two hour lesson every week. The objective is not to do homework with the child, but to go over any problems which the child had not managed to process at school and, if necessary, to focus on general knowledge development. Communication with the child’s parents is an important factor of this process. The objective is to train parents to help the child with learning and also to strengthen their competences in communication with the school and assisting their child with homework.

Volunteers are in regular contact with their coordinators (People in Need employees) who provide methodical support and are constant available for consultation. Volunteers can also cooperate with the school of the children which helps to achieve the maximal effect from the service. The relationship of the volunteer and the child is not limited only to teaching. It is important to establish working relationship with the child, to become their friend, ideally their mentor, to motivate them to learning, to discuss the child’s concerns and troubles in everyday life, to give them greater self-confidence and to stimulate their curiosity and interest.

Are you interested in becoming a volunteer for People in Need and give after-school-tutoring children in need? If this applies for you contact us on petra.sedlackova@clovekvtisni.cz

There are also commitments connected with voluntary work. The coordinators demand regular contact and mapping of the tutoring process, so a little administrative work cannot be avoided. It is also important that each applicant realistically appraises if they have enough time and the desire to engage in tutoring regularly and diligently. That is the only way to provide maximum support and together increase a chance for success of a child in need.

If the volunteer is involved in group tutoring, they come once or twice a week into a selected primary school where, together with other volunteers and their coordinator, they work with a group of children and through games, various exercises and tasks they help in developing the children’s basic competences.